Share Your Trips With Schmapplets

by Willy Volk on

Schmapplets is a clever tool that allows users to make customizable maps of places they’ve been or places they want to go. Appropriate for everything from planning a cross-country road-trip; to sharing photos from a recent hike through the Appalachians; to showcasing your favorite fishing holes, Schmapplets mashes together Google Maps, photo galleries, and a text editor and presents it in an easy-to-use interface.

The Schmapplet below is from Venice Carnevale. It spotlights the places Pat visited, some photos taken during the event, and provides space for a review/description of the experience.

The bummer about Schmapplets is that you need to download software to use it. The software is free to install, but with other no-download-necessary mapping/photo- and video-sharing tools available to people, I wonder if this will take off. Still, a very cool concept.

TripHub’s New Dynamic Maps Make TripPlanning Even Easier

by Willy Volk on

TripHub is an online group-travel planning resource. Recently, the site incorporated Trip Maps into their offerings, allowing users to map any group activity — from a pub crawl, to a bike race, to a family reunion, to a kayak trip. It’s a nifty way to plan a trip in which multiple people are participating.

As opposed to most map-making sites, TripHub allows users to collaborate on details of the trip (down to the nit-pickiest of things, like Tuesday’s hotel or Thursday’s brunch), invite other people, and even post an event schedule. Moreover, Trip Maps allow you to add items from local search results to the group’s schedule. In other words: no more mass e-mailing attendees whether they’d like to eat Mexican food or nyotaimori.

Though most Trip Maps are viewable by invitees only, you can see how it all works on Sandra’s Big Four Ooooh!, scheduled for Vegas for next February. Don’t knock it; Oprah and I will BOTH be there!

Subway Maps of the World

by Willy Volk on

If you’re heading to an unfamiliar city, and you anticipate using their subway system, you should check out Amadeus’ Subway Maps. Organized by continent, and further subdivided by cities, Subway Maps has printable PDFs of each of the dozens of subways featured — perfect for appending into your Moleskine City Guide. Each map is accompanied by images and basic information about each subway, including history and prices.

Larger than most travel guide’s subway maps, these maps have the added benefit of being free.

World Map from 1072: Couldn’t They Draw?

by Willy Volk on

Thanks to the Mapologists at Strange Maps, you can see a map of the world created in 1072. The map, made by Mahmud Kashgari bin Husayn bin Muhammad, was included in the Divanu Lügat-it-Türk, his treatment of Turkish culture. It is the first world map of Turkish origin known in history, and today is preserved at Istanbul’s General National Library.

The map indicates the location of places like Rus, Alexandria, Tashkent, Balasagun, Gog and Magog (a Biblical land walled off from the world by a mountain range), The World-Encircling Sea, and Kashgar (the map-maker’s birthplace). Surprisingly, there’s nary a Wal-Mart to be seen.

The Map Network: Easy Interactive Maps for Travelers

by Willy Volk on

The Map Network is a killer application that puts interesting, relevant information on maps and presents them in an unbelievably easy-to-use, interactive format. In addition to mapping destinations like San Francisco, the Network also maps events, like the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show. (Okay, so the map is still a map of Vegas, but it’s tailored to the interests of CES attendees.)

The maps in the Network allow users to zoom in and out, place markers, and print. But the maps also have gobs of data embedded in them, and by clicking a box, the map will zoom out, re-center, and zoom in on your selections. It’s all very Google Earth-ish, though not quite as tricky. For example, in under 60 seconds, I learned that the next time I head to South Beach, I can visit the Wolfsonian Museum, have dinner at 8½, enjoy after-dinner drinks at Club Deep, and rest my weary, sun-soaked head at the Anglers Boutique Resort — all just three blocks from the beach, and without any driving, since the map clearly shows that those places are all within easy walking distance.

Though the entire planet hasn’t been mapped yet, several dozen US destinations have been mapped. Also, bear in mind that USA Today’s City Guides have been mashed with the maps, so there’s actually lots more information on the Network than appears at first glance.